Eyes of Fire

“Do you want that ship badly enough to threaten Sam?” Jem suddenly demanded from behind Adam. “Enough to kill?”

“No matter what the rumor might be, I’ve never killed anyone, nor caused anyone to be killed. And take a look. Do you see the young lady here?” Astin demanded. Hands on his hips, he stared at Adam. “You’re looking in the wrong place, and you should damned well know it!” he snapped.

“What’s he talking about, Adam?” Yancy asked.

Adam and Astin stared at one another. Adam realized that Astin must know the truth about Jerry North, just as he did himself. Justin Carlyle had been out with Astin several times before his disappearance. If Astin was as legitimate in this as he was claiming, the two men might even have been friends.

Justin Carlyle might even have shared some information with Astin regarding a possible reconciliation with his ex-wife, Jerry.

Justin wouldn’t have told Sam about Jerry. He wouldn’t have told her anything that might hurt her. And unless Jerry was definitely going to become a part of their lives again, there wouldn’t have been much of a reason to tell Sam about her.

“She couldn’t have come to hurt Sam,” Adam said.

James Jay Astin threw up his hands. “There are different ways to hurt people, aren’t there, Mr. O’Connor?”

“She wouldn’t put Sam’s life in danger.”

“There are different ways to do that, as well. You can endanger someone’s life without ever intending to.”

“I’m going to see Jerry North,” Adam said to Jem, Matt and Yancy. “You go over to the Walkers’.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Adam spun around to stare at Astin. “Why not?”

Astin exhaled, shaking his head. “As I said, I have been looking for the Beldona. I wanted Justin Carlyle’s help looking for it, and I think that Justin would have taken on my company to do the actual salvage. Samantha Carlyle hates the ship—she wasn’t willingly going to help anyone, so I had to try to find out what she did know, and where she’d go if she was diving herself. I’m too old myself for the kind of diving required to find the ship. I hired the Walkers to tail Samantha Carlyle, to get her diving around the Steps, to try to discover just what was down there.”

“Then—” Adam began.

“I’m telling you, the Walkers are guilty of a certain deceit in their reasons for being here, but that is it. They are innocent of any wrongdoing. Judy Walker is extremely fond of Miss Carlyle, who has been very kind to her children. I can promise you, the Walkers would not harm Sam. You will not find Miss Carlyle with them.”

“God help you if you’re lying to me, Astin!” Adam said. Then he turned on his heel and exited the cottage.

It was time for a showdown with Jerry North.

He kept touching her.

Fingers moving over her flesh like maggots.

But she did want to live.

“The English captain of the Beldona was still in love with his Spanish mistress. She and her new fiancé were both aboard the Beldona. The rubies and other Spanish gems were aboard the ship, as well, and my father believed…”

“Yes, what did your father believe?”

His fingers stroked her thighs.

“That…that…”

“Yes?”

Oh, God. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe.

He was straddling her.

She could tell that he was lean, tightly muscled.

And he was nearly naked. Shirtless, barefoot, he wore bathing trunks and nothing else at all. He sat over her own barely covered hips. The hair on his legs grazed vulnerable flesh.

He leaned closer to her again. She could almost feel the full length of him. The texture of his flesh. The strength of his body.

All of it…so threatening.

Evil. Eerie.

His lips nearly upon hers, his breath coming in and out, a whisper forming on his mouth, against her own.

“Now…” he began.

Then another voice suddenly cut the air. A female voice.

Furious.

“My God! Just what in hell do you think you’re doing?”

15

O ddly enough, Hinnerman was at the door of the cottage as Adam made his way toward it.

“What the hell is it, cop?” Hinnerman demanded nastily. He was wearing boxer shorts and an open robe, and he held a glass of liquor in his hand. A nightcap.

“I’d like to see Miss North, please.”

“Why?” Hinnerman demanded belligerently.

“That’s between Miss North and me.”

“You want to talk to Jerry, big man, you gotta go through me.”

But Adam didn’t have to go through Hinnerman. Jerry was standing behind him.

Such a pretty woman. Looking so much younger than her years. Except for her eyes. Her eyes looked so much older.

“Adam, what’s wrong?” Jerry asked.

“We’re looking for Sam.”

Jerry, in a white cotton robe and delicate white slippers, shook her head worriedly. “She isn’t here.”

“Of course she isn’t here! What the hell would she be doing here at this hour of the night?” Hinnerman’s eyes narrowed on Adam. “Maybe she’s decided you aren’t such a hotshot in bed after all, huh?”

Adam clenched his teeth, forcing a false smile to his lips as he faced Hinnerman. “Maybe she feels just that, Hinnerman. But you know what, butt head? At least I never had to beat a woman to get her to stay with me.”

Jerry gasped. Hinnerman swore.

“You wiseass piece of shit!” Hinnerman bellowed, starting toward Adam. Jerry leaped between them. Hinnerman looked as if he was about to slug her, but Jem instinctively came forward, sweeping Jerry up, just as Adam stepped forward, flinging up an arm to ward off Hinnerman’s blow while carefully aiming his own right.

Hinnerman went down.

Adam discovered that he was shaking. “Why the hell do you stay with him, Jerry? Why the hell do you need him when…when—”

He broke off, shaking his head.

Jerry eased from Jem’s hold, looking down at Liam, who was just beginning to try to pick himself up. “You…know?” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“Does Sam?”

“No, not yet. I thought it was something you might like to tell her yourself. But then again, I kept other information from her, and that’s why she’s missing now.”

Hinnerman had made it to his feet. He was staring balefully at Adam.

“Sam Carlyle seems to like you just fine right now, doesn’t she, Jerry?” he jeered. “Wait until she finds out you’re the mama who deserted her and her daddy on this island. Wait until she finds out that you were snooping around her daddy right before he disappeared from the face of this earth!”

Jerry was white. She looked at Adam. “He’s right. How can I tell her? She’ll hate me.”

Adam shook his head. “How can you not tell her? How can you keep away from her? You’ve got a beautiful daughter.”

“Too beautiful, maybe, inside and out. She’ll hate me.”

“I don’t think so.” He glanced contemptuously at Hinnerman. “You need to get away from this abusive bastard. She’d help you.”

“You mind your own business, you cop asshole.”

“I’m not a cop anymore.”

“Who the hell are you working for?”

“Myself. I’m my own damned employer. Jerry, we’ve got to find her. Want to help us?”

“Yes, yes, just let me change.”

Adam nodded. “Jem, you stay here. If he lifts a finger against her, deck the bastard again.”

“Gotcha, Adam,” Jem agreed.

“Yancy, we’ll try Jim Santino’s next.”

“Want me to go to Sukee’s?”

“No, I don’t want you alone anymore, either. Just stick with me. Behind me,” he added after a moment. “Santino is the son of a gangster.”

Yancy took him at his word. She hung just behind him, holding his elbow as they hurried across the beautifully manicured lawn to Santino’s cottage.

Yet even as they neared it, they could hear the screaming. Adam glanced at Yancy quickly, then started to run.

“You bastard! I’ll kill you!” cried the furious female voice.

Sam heard a whacking sound.

Then her attacker, speaking again, contrite, pleading now.

“Stop it. Calm down. You don’t understand what I’m trying to do.”

“It’s obvious what you’re trying to do.”

“Bullshit! Her old man killed mine. What possible interest would I have in her?”

“Your libido seems to have no problems with her!”

He was off her, Sam realized, inhaling raggedly and fighting a different battle. She could hear the blows that were raining against him.

“Sue, stop it!”

“You slimy, two-timing, gigolo son of a bloody bastard. You said—”

“Oh, my God!” Sam gasped, realizing to whom the voices belonged. The Emersons. “Joey, you bastard. Get this blindfold off me and untie me. I don’t know what you think—”

“Great!” Joey broke in. “This is just great, Sue. Now she knows who we are. We’re going to have to kill her.”

“Now wait—” Sam began.

“Don’t be an ass, Joey. If you just explain—”

“Explain? Are you out of your mind?”

“Oh, no, don’t explain!” Sue said sarcastically. “Your way is much better. Beat her. Rape her. That will make the both of us just adore you.”

“I wasn’t going to—”

“Then what the hell were you doing?”

“Trying to scare her. I was working—”

“What a chore that must have been!”

“Sue, I love you!”

“For the love of God, will you at least take this stupid blindfold off me?” Sam pleaded.

The Emersons were silent. A moment later Sam exhaled a sigh of relief as the blindfold was wrenched away from her eyes.

She was on a boat. A nice one. The bunk she was tied to was surrounded by mahogany cabinetry and shelves lined with books. She was staring at a complete entertainment system.

Joey and Sue were staring at her. They were both in bathing suits.

Not formally dressed, but in far better shape than she could claim herself at the moment. Her dress was in tatters. She felt both frighteningly vulnerable and ridiculous at the same time.

“Would you please consider untying me?” she demanded icily.

Sue glanced at Joey, who had the grace to look ashamed.

“Please, these ties are really painful. I can barely feel my arms anymore.”

Sue stepped forward. Sam realized that she had been tied up with a pair of Sue’s stockings.

“Sue, I didn’t tell you that you could untie her.”

“Shut up, Joey.”

“All right, Sam. I’m actually sorry about this,” Joey said, “but I want you to know that I’ve got a gun on you now. Don’t try anything.”

“Thanks,” she told Sue, rubbing her wrists to bring some life back to them and ignoring Joey’s threat.

Her feet had been secured by one of Joey’s belts. She freed herself. Joey did indeed have a gun. It was very small, the size of his hand. But considering some of Joey’s family ties, Sam was sure that the gun was both real and lethal.

Sue stood next to Joey but kept staring at Sam, shaking her head.

“You’re slime, Joey. And to think that I married you, that I fell in love with you!”

“Dammit, Sue, I didn’t really intend to do anything to her. I knew you were sleeping in the other cabin, just waiting for the drug to wear off her.”

“This was idiotic to begin with,” Sue insisted.

Joey sighed deeply. “It is not idiotic. I want to find that ship. My mother wants me to find that ship, and my brother wants me to find that ship. My dad was stabbed. And I’ll bet you she knows it.”

“I just found that out this afternoon,” Sam said awkwardly. “Joey…Shapiro?”

“Yeah. Son of a dead man. Knifed through the gut. He was half consumed by fish when they found him.”

“Your dad was a gangster. Joey, come on!” Sue pleaded suddenly. “You don’t want that life.”

“He was a diver.”

“He was a criminal, playing rough games for high stakes.” She glanced at Sam. “I told him not to do this! The day he came after you in your living room, he was nearly decked by that cop friend of yours. Idiot!” she told Joey.

“How was I supposed to have known they had a past history and that Adam O’Connor would come rushing to her rescue? This should have been all over that night. She should have passed out nicely, wakened terrified and answered all my questions.”

“I don’t have the answers you want!” Sam insisted. She looked at Sue. “And he didn’t attack me in my living room,” Sam added, deciding it might serve her well to keep the argument going between the two of them. “He broke in through my window and attacked me in the bathtub.”

“The bathtub!” Sue shrieked at Joey.

She’d never realized before just how young the Emersons were, Sam thought. Right now, they looked like a pair of squabbling children.

Except that they were children with a prisoner. Playing cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers.

And she still might get an arrow—or a bullet—through her heart.

Joey was attempting to be placating once again. “Sue, you knew I was going to get her to talk, no matter what it took.”

“No, you’re wrong on that one, Joey. I knew you were getting obsessed with this thing, but not at the cost of everything else.”

“Sue…”

“Joey—” Sue broke off, staring at Sam. “He really attacked you in your bathroom?”

“I was right in the tub.”

Sue swung around, slapping Joey as hard as she could. “You son of a bitch! She was naked.”

“Well, it wasn’t my fault! How the hell did I know what she was going to be doing when I went through the window?”

“Amazing! She’s nearly naked right now! Oh, Joey, I just do not believe this!” Sue cried. She swung at Joey again.

And hit him.

Hit him so hard that she knocked him off-balance. Trying to regain his footing, Joey grabbed at his wife.

They went down together.

Sam stared at them for a split second, then decided that opportunity might not come again.

She sprang from the bunk, wincing in pain as the sudden movement stabbed straight through her arms and legs. Joey’s gun had fallen. If she took the time to reach for it, Joey might well drag her down, as well.

She kicked the gun. It went flying under the bunk and clattered as it slipped between the boards of the cabinetry.

“Look what you’ve done!” Joey shrieked at Sue, gaining his feet.

Sam didn’t wait for Sue’s reply.

She flew out of the cabin, past the salon and galley, and bounded up the steps that led to the upper deck.

And there she stood dead still.

She was surrounded by darkness.

The darkness of the water.

The Stygian darkness of the sea at night.

The wind whipped around her. The boat was rocking wildly.

The storm was brewing wickedly.

And she was in the center of a wild black void.

She swung around. Thank God. Light. She could see light. Seafire Isle. If only she could judge the distance. They hadn’t come so far.

But far enough.

They’d come somewhere between one and two miles from shore, perhaps.

What a difference! she mocked herself. What was a mile on a night like this?

The difference between life and death, perhaps. Say it was two miles. With a whipping wind, a churning dark sea. The undercurrents would be as volatile as the air around her.

“Damn it, Sue, I know you can reach the damned gun. Get it!” she heard Joey cry.

She saw a pair of flippers leaning against the port side decking. She grabbed them and slipped them on.

“Joey, I’ve got it!” Sue cried. “I’ve got the gun.”

Sam plunged into the sea.

Adam shouted, banging on the cottage door. “If you’ve hurt her, I’ll rip your heart out, you bastard!” He set his shoulder against the door, slamming at it with determined strength.

He burst into the cottage.

The living room was dark. Adam rushed through it.

Into the bedroom.

He stopped short.

Jim Santino was in bed. Doing nothing evil to Sam. He wasn’t even with Sam. He was with Sukee.

Sukee, naturally, had been doing the screaming.

But she hadn’t been in any pain.

She was staring at him with the sheets drawn around her breasts.

Sukee smiled very slowly. “Hi. Did you come to join us?” She looked at Jim, taunting him. “Did you hear the way he threatened you? I really like tough guys!” She sighed, lashes fluttering as she looked at Adam. “But no, he didn’t hurt me. Still, if you want to rip his heart out, we can make it into a wild night.”

Yancy had come up behind Adam. He spun around.

“The Emersons?” she said.

He shook his head. “The Shapiros,” he murmured.

“What?” Yancy demanded.

“A very long story,” Adam said, turning to leave Jim Santino’s bedroom.

“Hey, wait, what’s going on?” Jim yelled after them.

“Sorry we interrupted!” Adam shouted.

With a sense of urgency building inside him, Adam started to run again.

He reached the Emersons’ cottage and started to bang on the door.

It swung in at his touch.

He stepped into the living room. It was dark and empty. “Sam!” he cried, moving into the kitchenette, the bedroom, the bathroom.

The cottage was completely empty.

He turned around to leave and slammed into Yancy. “They’ve taken her,” he said huskily.

“Where?” Yancy demanded.

“Where else do you go when you leave an island?” Adam demanded bitterly. “The water. They’ve taken her out to sea.”

It was amazing how cold the water—the usually wonderful, temperate water—could be in the middle of the night when a storm was approaching.

Sam was a good swimmer. A strong swimmer. The water had been her life. She was almost as comfortable in it as she was on dry land.

Usually.

But then, usually she had the sense to stay out of the water when a storm was nearing the island. And she never swam in these depths in the middle of the night.

In the chill of the wind….

In such unbreakable darkness.

Life. How she wanted to hang on to it.

She wondered now what her father had felt, fighting for his life. Surely it had seemed as precious to him during his last few minutes as it now seemed to her. Had he thought of her? Had he fought against the possibility of going away forever until the very last minute? She was strong, and the flippers helped, but it didn’t matter. For every few feet she managed to make toward the island, another swell came by and swept her back. The salt was stinging her eyes. Tears filled them. As afraid as she was for her own life, she suddenly felt her father’s suffering.

And if she perished here…

Yancy had Hank and her baby to sustain her. Jem had his family. They would hurt, but they were strong. Then there was Adam. Adam, whom she had thrown away. Adam, who had played his own games of deceit. Adam, who had told her that he loved her.

She had to stop crying, she told herself furiously. She would definitely die.

She was going to die.

No. She could survive in the water for a very long time. She squinted, drawing her wrist above her head, grateful that she wore a diver’s watch with a luminous dial.

Nearly five o’clock.

Nearly morning.

How long had she been in the water already? How close was the storm?

The storm that hadn’t been due to come near them for at least another twenty-four hours.

The rain hadn’t started yet, thank God. Just the wind.

The wind…and the vicious swirl of the water.

She’d shed the remnants of her dress and was swimming in her underwear, nothing restricting her movements. She reminded herself that when she got tired, she only had to float. The current should take her toward the island.

It was just that the current kept changing with the erratic whipping of the wind.

Sharks.

There were sharks in these waters. Lots of them. She’d faced them so many times.

Faced them. At their level.

Now her legs were dangling. Temptingly. And she was blind to what lay below her. She’d always had a healthy respect for sharks but never a fear of them. Until now.

Terror suddenly filled her. From below, she would look just like a smorgasbord.

She had to float, rest, relax.

She flipped onto her back, breathing deeply. The sea was rising, the water slapping over her face. She had to take care with every breath. No matter how experienced she was, her muscles were tiring.

Adam had tried to protect her. He had stuck to her like glue. She’d thought herself so much older and wiser than the last time. She’d lost her temper without seeking an explanation again. She’d been hurt. Last time she had forced him away.

This time she had run.

Now she was going to die, and it wasn’t going to matter if he did love her or he didn’t.

Still, she’d been so close. She’d wanted Adam from the time she had first seen him, and she’d wanted him more with each hour that passed. They’d shared the sea. A knowledge of it, a love for it. The secrets within it. A love for the life around it. Adam loved her island. He’d said that he loved her….

She closed her eyes briefly, trying hard to breathe easily and regain her strength, to keep herself afloat on her back so she wasn’t constantly fighting the swell of water into her nose. She sneezed, coughed, choked. The salt water stung through her nostrils to her eyes. Thank God she was so accustomed to it. She would have been dead already if she wasn’t. She had to keep going, keep fighting. Fighting until she was dead. Oh, God, though, this was hard. A bullet in the heart would have been an easier way to go.

No, hope was best.

Except she had no more strength.

Adam would come for her, she realized suddenly. He was probably looking for her already, scouring the island. He had undoubtedly dragged everyone on the island out of bed. If he loved her…

He did.

The things people did for love….

She was going to die, Sam thought, and she had just figured out what her father had known about the Beldona.

If given the opportunity, she could most probably find the ship.

Water lapped over her head again. She turned, trying to swim hard.

She heard the sound of a motor. She flipped over again, blinking against the wind and the rising sea. A boat was coming toward her. A flashlight was seeking her out in the waves.

Adam.

Adam had come at last…. “There she is!”

It was a woman’s cry. Sam blinked against the sea and salt. Oh, God. No.

Joey and Sue were standing portside, pointing at her. Joey’s little gun was thrust into the waistband of his swim trunks as he leaned over the wooden railing.

“There! There!”

Sue seemed to be reaching toward her.

Had they come to rescue her? Or put that bullet through her heart?

“Get her, Joey!”

She could slip beneath the surface. Let the sea take her.

She was tired. So tired.

Something tugged on her leg. Pulled her down. Oh, God! She panicked, choked.

A shark. That was what survivors said. That there was no pain at first, just a jerk, a sensation of being pulled downward. They’d never known what hit them, just looked down to see a pool of blood spreading around them….

There was no blood that she could see. Just the darkness of the water.

And another jerk. Hard.

Oh, God, so hard! She couldn’t possibly fight it. It was like a vise. She was being bitten right in two, and now she could feel the pain as she was tugged, pulled….

Pulled irrevocably downward into the cold, black, swirling void of the sea….

16

D own…

A shark.

Not a shark.

Adam.

He was in front of her in complete diving gear, thrusting his regulator into her mouth, drawing her downward. His arms locked around her, and despite the darkness, his silver-gray eyes met hers through the glass of his diving mask. They both kicked the water with their swim fins, moving through the silent, salty darkness of the sea, sharing the air from Adam’s tank with slow, practiced breathing. Sam didn’t know where he was taking her, and she didn’t care. It seemed that they were merely drifting in the chill blackness, but Adam seemed to have a strategy.

She was alive.

She had believed that he would come for her.

And he had.

He lifted a thumb, indicating the surface, then adjusted his buoyancy control vest, filling it with air. They kicked upward from the fifteen to twenty feet to which they had descended. She was grateful to see that they had come up just twenty or thirty feet from the Sloop Bee. The dive boat was rocking strenuously in the turbulence of the ocean. Adam pulled off his mask and spat out his mouthpiece.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded, then threw her arms around him. “You found me. Oh, my God, you found me. I didn’t think that anyone could find me in the wind, in the darkness…. I thought I was going to die. Oh, Adam, I didn’t want to die, but I kept thinking about my father. It must have been so horrible for him—but you came for me.” She clung to him with such energy that his vest couldn’t quite maintain them above the surface. She didn’t care. If they were to drown now, at least they would go together. She found his lips. They tasted of salt, but they were warm. He kissed her back, and his warmth filled her. She wasn’t going to die. She was going to live.

And she was going to love him.

Adam suddenly kicked the water hard, and they broke the surface again.

“You found me,” she whispered.

He smiled, inhaling deeply. “It wasn’t difficult. I had Jem head for the Steps. I was sure that was where they’d be.”

“Where did Joey and Sue get that boat?” Sam asked. The last word was a gurgle; she’d been hit by a wave.

“Hank stole it.”

“Hank stole it?” she repeated incredulously.

“He had to—to escape. He’d been kept in the garage of a marine company for a year. When he got out, he didn’t know who to trust, so he escaped to the water—and Seafire Isle. He left the boat in the harbor. Joey and Sue must have discovered it, and decided that it would make do for their own use.”

“I still don’t understand. Were they keeping Hank prisoner?”

Water slapped her in the face again. She was shivering; her teeth were chattering.

“Let’s get out,” Adam advised.

When they made it to the Sloop Bee, Yancy and Jerry North were at the ladder to help her out. She was instantly wrapped in a blanket, hugged, handed from person to person. And there were a lot of people—Adam, Yancy, Jerry, Liam Hinnerman, Jim Santino and Sukee. Behind them all, she saw that even Avery Smith was aboard.

Not Avery Smith. James Jay Astin. She had to remember that.

“Where’s Hank?” she whispered to Yancy.

Yancy explained softly that Hank was with the baby.

Sam looked around, not seeing Jem and Matt.

Adam read her mind. “They’re bringing the Emersons around,” he told her.

A cup of coffee was pressed into her hands. She accepted it gladly, sitting on the starboard side of the boat.

“I’m so grateful to be here, to be alive. To all of you for coming out, but I’m still so confused.”

Adam sat down at her side. “You certainly have every reason to be confused. Because just about everybody is guilty of something.”

Sam arched a brow. James Jay Astin cleared his throat and came around and sat on her other side. “Well, you know who I am,” he said. He looked forward, then at Adam, and then at Sam again. “Lew and Judy Walker have recently resigned from my employ.”

“What?” Sam gasped.

“They were working for Mr. Astin,” Adam explained evenly.

“But they’re actually good people, Sam. All they were trying to do was find the Beldona for me. They didn’t do a thing illegal. And neither one of them would ever harm you in any way.”

“What a relief,” Sam murmured. “So—neither of them knocked me out or killed my father?”

“No, of course not!” Astin told her. “And neither did I,” Astin said grimly. “I was your father’s friend, Miss Carlyle. That’s the absolute truth. I am sorry for the deceit we practiced. I beg that you forgive me.”

Sam nodded slowly. “You’re forgiven. All of you,” Sam said.

Jim Santino cleared his throat. “Sorry, Sam. I guess it’s pretty obvious. I’ve been trying to use you, too, to find the Beldona.” He hesitated. “I’ve been working for my dad, but honestly, I would never have hurt you, either.”

Sam nodded at Jim, then looked at Adam. “Who have you been working for?” she demanded.

He smiled. “Myself. Actually, I was using the Beldona to find you again. And my brother, naturally.”

She nodded, lowering her eyes, smiling. Then she was jolted, her coffee stingingly warm and yet reassuring as a drop bounced onto her hand. The boat with the Emersons on board was suddenly brought alongside the Sloop Bee. Jem and Matt stood grimly behind the Emersons, ready to force them aboard the Sloop Bee.

Jem had Joey Emerson’s little gun in his hands. He dumped the remaining ammunition from the weapon and slid it into the waistband of his pants before he lifted Sue, setting her flatly on board the Sloop Bee.

“I don’t know what the hell you all think you’re doing,” Joey protested.

“I imagine Miss Carlyle intends to press charges against you for assault and battery, kidnapping, and maybe even attempted murder,” Adam advised him dryly.

“Oh, don’t be silly. I was just trying to scare her,” Joey protested. “And you’re not a cop anymore.”

“Think of this as a citizen’s arrest,” Adam said. “We can probably also charge you with another case of kidnapping, wrongful imprisonment—and murder.”

“Murder!” Joey said, furious, standing his ground against Adam. “I didn’t murder anybody. I just wanted the truth. Nothing but the damned truth. My mother has been sick all these years, wanting to know what’s going on.”

“Your mother?” Jem queried skeptically.

“Yes, my mother. I’ve been working for my mother, trying to find out exactly what happened to my father! Damn! Everyone keeps saying that Sam’s father was so wonderful. Well, all right, mine wasn’t a saint, but he was murdered. By Sam’s father. And I deserve some answers just like everyone else here.”

“Sam’s father didn’t kill Marcus Shapiro,” Jerry North said suddenly, her voice soft, yet somehow filling the silence that had risen after Joey’s words.

“The hell he didn’t!” Joey said. “He followed Justin because he had heard that Justin was about to make a deal with James Jay Astin, which meant Justin was pretty sure he had discovered where the ship lay. He knew your father, too, Sam, because SeaLink had been tentatively negotiating with Robert Santino about splitting both the expenses and rewards in bringing up the treasures of the ship.”

“Yes, Justin knew where the ship was, but he didn’t kill your father, Joey,” Jerry said.

“How can you know that?” Joey demanded.

Jerry stared at Adam. Sam frowned, watching the strange cry for help that seemed to be in Jerry’s gaze.

“How can you know that?” Joey repeated furiously.

“Because she killed him, kid. Jerry killed your old man,” Liam offered suddenly, chuckling.

“That’s enough,” Adam said quietly. “We’ll get back to the explanations in a minute, Joey. Sam, Jerry, come down to the end of the boat for a minute’s privacy, will you?”

“Oh, that will help!” Liam exclaimed dryly.

“You shut up,” Jem warned Liam.

“Or else…?”

Adam had Sam’s arm, and Jerry’s. Sam had never been more confused. Adam was insisting she needed a private moment with Jerry in the midst of Liam casting murder accusations Jerry’s way.

“Wait—” Sam protested.

“This can’t wait,” Adam said.

He led them both to the aft of the Sloop Bee.

“Adam, what’s going on?” Sam demanded. “Jerry, did something happen to you?”

“I—” Jerry began.

“Jerry, everything is coming out now. Matters are going to get worse before they get better. This isn’t exactly the right way to do this, either, but the best I can do under the circumstances is buy you both a few seconds here.”

“Please, what is going on?” Sam persisted.

Adam walked two steps away, his back to the women. He stood like a bulldog, guarding them from the others.

“I’m—” Jerry began.

“Yes?”

“I’m—your mother, Sam.”

“Mother? My mother’s been gone. I don’t even remember her. I think she’s dead. I—”

“No, Sam. I’m not dead.”

“This can’t be.”

“It’s the truth.”

“Oh, God!” Sam felt as if she’d been hit.

“I’m so sorry, you deserved so much better. I mean, you deserve to be told in a better way. And you deserved more noble relations. Like your father.”

Sam felt as if she was going to fall. The information was numbing. Jerry, her mother? It explained Jerry’s interest in her. Jerry’s quiet longing to be with her. It explained the pain in the woman’s eyes, and her discomfort now.

Seconds that seemed like hours passed before Sam could feel, think or speak. Then she saw the slow trickle of tears falling silently down Jerry’s cheeks. A strange surge of emotion welled within her. Love? She hadn’t even known she had a living mother. Love could take time. And understanding. But she realized that Jerry had been hurt. Whatever her actions, she had known pain as well. And Sam realized that she wanted to protect the woman.

“Oh, Sam, I am so sorry—”

“Don’t you be sorry!” Sam said fiercely, catching Jerry’s hand, squeezing it.

“But—”

“Don’t be sorry. Don’t you be down on yourself. I don’t understand anything anymore—”

“This friggin’ family reunion has got to stop!” Liam bellowed.

“Go to hell!” Jerry cried, pulling from Sam and brushing past Adam to come and stand in front of Liam. “You go to hell!” she cried furiously again.

“Tell the Emerson kid—the Shapiro kid!—and your daughter the truth. Tell them that you murdered Shapiro’s old man.”

“I don’t believe it!” Joey snapped.

“Tell him, Jerry,” Liam insisted.

“Liam, you leave her the hell alone and let her talk in her own time,” Adam warned, stepping forward again.

“Please!” Sam insisted, following him.

Jerry swung back to look sadly at Sam, speaking softly, her words for the two of them alone. “What I’ve told you is the truth. God forgive me. I left your father right after you were born. I was young and stupid and didn’t think that I could bear life on his island. But he was a good man, the best man in the world. He still wrote to me on occasion. When he could find me. He sent me pictures. Years later I had become involved with—with Mr. Santino’s father. Oddly enough, I discovered that he was in the process of some business that had to do with Justin. I saw Justin again. We began to talk. I thought that maybe after all that time…But I was just being used against him.” She turned from Sam then and stared at Joey, her voice rising on a strong note. “Your sainted father tricked me. We followed Justin—to the ship. To ‘celebrate’ with Justin, so your father told me, Joey. I was there when he slit Justin Carlyle’s throat.” She raised her hands, staring at them. “When I saw what he had done to Justin, I stabbed him.”

She looked at Sam. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

Sam stared at her, stunned. She felt numb again. Cold. Colder than she had felt in the sea, fearing death.

“I’m sorry about your father,” Jerry whispered painfully. “He was the only truly good person I ever knew. And I’m so sorry that now you know you’re related to me.” The last was barely a whisper.

Her father was dead. Definitely dead. She had known it. Of course, Justin wouldn’t have left her. The finality hurt. But the pain had been with her for so many years now that this finality was a bearable anguish.

Her numbness began to fade as the warmth of pity filled her.

This was her mother. This beautiful butterfly who didn’t look much older than she was herself. This woman who had apparently made such a pathetic disaster of her life, but now spoke with a strange, sad dignity. Jerry had hurt her, abandoned her. But there were so many things she could see in Jerry now. In her beautiful blue eyes. Remorse. Anguish. And a fear that had apparently lived with her for a long, long time. The fear that she could never, in a thousand years, change things.

“Jerry…” Sam began, but Jerry was staring at Joey Emerson née Shapiro again.

“I killed Marcus,” Jerry said. “I killed him when I saw what he had done to Justin. I didn’t think about it, I simply reacted. He had meant to kill Justin all along. Your father planned to murder Justin. He slit Justin’s throat. I can still remember the blood surging into the water…I—oh, God, Sam, it was quick. I swear it. Justin died quickly. He couldn’t have been in any pain, it was so fast. I can’t say it enough. I’m sorry. So sorry.”

Sam stood there, heedless of the others around her. “You killed Marcus Shapiro because he murdered my father,” she said evenly. “But why did Marcus kill my father?”

Jerry’s head fell, tears silently streaming down her face. “Robert Santino had hired a lot of divers on his treasure searches. When all this happened, he was still negotiating with SeaLink and, through SeaLink, with Justin Carlyle. Other than Justin, most of the divers Santino hired weren’t the most reputable men in the world. Santino wanted the rubies. He didn’t give a damn about the historical value of the Beldona. He just wanted the Eyes of Fire rubies. Well, one of his men, a nasty little drug-smuggling murderer named Chico Garcia—”

“Chico Garcia!” Adam interrupted. “He disappeared a long time ago. You mean, Garcia disappeared because of the Beldona, as well?”

“It’s quite a story,” Liam Hinnerman said coolly. “Chico wanted a lot more money from Robert Santino than he was getting. He was also fooling around with Santino’s previous girlfriend—the woman he had been dating just before Jerry. He went out diving with one of Santino’s men, unaware that the guy was ready to break out on his own. Anyway, the best Chico was willing to do was to bring up gems one at a time and see what Santino was willing to pay him for each one. But the guy he was out with intended to keep everything for himself. Chico was actually the first man to find the ship—though he never had a chance to share what he knew about it. After he came up with the rubies, he realized that his buddy intended to shoot him. He must have been mortally wounded, but he went back down to the Beldona, stuffed the rubies into the eye sockets of an old skeleton, and died himself. The buddy never managed to follow him, never managed to discover the exact location of the ship.”

“I still don’t understand why my father was killed,” Sam said.

“Or mine,” Joey said.

“Your father was a murdering bastard who deserved to die!” Jerry informed Joey passionately.

“Shut up!” Liam Hinnerman suddenly snapped. Taking a step toward Jerry, he swung his palm at her face with a blow that sent her sprawling to the floor.

“Don’t you dare do that! Don’t you dare!” Sam cried out. Leaping to her feet, she attacked Hinnerman.

“Sam!” Adam started after her, but Hinnerman pulled a gun and pointed it straight at Adam’s nose. Jerry struggled to her feet and caught hold of Sam, dragging her down before Liam could strike her, as well.

“Leave him alone, Sam, please.”

“He has no right! He can’t do that to you!” Sam insisted angrily. “I won’t let him! He can just damned well shoot me—”

“Sam, Sam, please stop. He will shoot you.” Jerry stared at her, her blue eyes damp. “Sam, I knew the story. I—I went into shock after your father was killed. I don’t know how I survived…except that I was saved by one of Santino’s divers.”

“Hinnerman,” Adam guessed.

“Yes, sir!” Liam said quietly, smiling, the gun still pointed at Adam’s face.

“Sam, I swear to you, I didn’t realize it myself until we were on the island. Liam is—”

“Liam is the bastard who pretended to be working for Robert Santino while he was striking out on his own,” Adam said coolly. “He rescued Jerry and kept in close contact with her while she had to lie low. Justin had been killed, and she had killed a man herself. Liam probably convinced her that she’d get the chair for murder if she whispered a word to anyone. Of course, Liam wanted her to find the ship, but she was terrified of diving, and shock had given her complete amnesia about what she knew about the ship. How am I doing, Hinnerman? Is that about right?”

“In a nutshell,” Liam said. “I’ve killed before, and I wouldn’t mind killing again at all. Of course, I need Sam alive for a while. Sam can find the Beldona. And Sam is going to find the Beldona. Because if she doesn’t, every single one of you is going to die.”

Adam crossed his arms over his chest. “Okay, Hinnerman, you’ve got a gun. But you’re facing six men, not to mention some very inventive ladies. You can’t shoot us all at once. And there’s a storm coming.”

“I don’t need to shoot you all at once. I’ll shoot you one by one—you in the knees, first. That should make Sam very amenable to following my orders.”

“And he’s not alone, honey,” a sexy voice said wryly from behind Adam.

They all spun around. Sukee had drawn a little pearl-handled revolver from the windbreaker she’d been wearing.

“Sukee?” Jim said incredulously. “But you were working for my father!”

“’Fraid not, honey,” she said sweetly.

Sam stood again, protectively placing herself in front of Jerry. “I just don’t believe this,” she said flatly.

“Sorry,” Sukee said with a shrug.

“Why?” Jim demanded, still astounded.

“Well, now, lover, it seems that no one on this island goes by his or her right name. I made up all that Pontre crap. You’re all too trusting.”

“I doubt that I will be in the future,” Sam commented.

“If you have a future,” Liam warned.

“Just what is your real name?” Adam demanded of Sukee.

She smiled. “Garcia. Chico was my father.”

“This is sick!” Yancy offered. “You’re in league with Hinnerman—who killed your father?”

Sukee tossed her short, sassy hair. “Unlike Joey over there, I can see the truth. My father wasn’t just a criminal, he was a complete asshole. I don’t need anyone to tell me that he deserved to die. But he was the first to find the stinking ship, and I deserve my cut of those rubies. So we’re going to get to them. Right now.”

“It’s night, and there’s a storm brewing,” Adam said.

“It’s nearly dawn, and I suggest Sam finds the damn ship before the storm actually gets here,” Sukee said.

“She doesn’t know where the ship is,” Adam insisted angrily.

Hinnerman suddenly pressed the nose of his gun against Adam’s temple. “Where’s your brother?”

“None of your business.”

“He came straight here. To you. To his kid.”

“Well, he isn’t here, is he?” Adam backed away from the nose of the gun, staring at Sukee. “Who was keeping him prisoner? A relative of yours?”

Sukee smiled. “I have a brother, too. He met up with Liam soon after poor old Dad met his fate. We spent a very long time planning this. Hank happened to dig his way out of his imprisonment just a little bit too late to be of enough help to do you any good now, huh? A few days earlier, and he could have kept you from the predicament you’re now in. But the little bastard is on the island, I’ll bet,” Sukee said.

Hinnerman said, “It is an island. He’s not going anywhere.”

“So you’re planning on killing all of us here, then going to Seafire Isle and killing everyone there?” Adam asked.

Hinnerman smiled in reply.

“Sam doesn’t know where the ship is,” Adam insisted.

“Sam hasn’t wanted to know where the ship is because Sam has known she’d find her old man’s body on it,” Liam said flatly. “Now she can find the ship or I can start killing people.”

“You can’t just kill everyone,” Adam began.

Hinnerman turned his gun on Joey Emerson. He fired. Sue screamed. Joey fell, clutching his shoulder.

“Want me to keep shooting?” Hinnerman asked Adam politely.

“Jem, get the first-aid kit,” Sam said quickly.

“Sam, if you don’t want to see anyone else bleeding and in pain, you’d better start suiting up.”

“Am I supposed to dive alone?” she demanded.

“I’ll go with her,” Adam offered.

“Oh, no, not you, he-man!” Sukee said sweetly. “You’re just a little bit too dangerous. I’ll be going with Sam while Liam and his Magnum keep you all company up here.”

“It’s all right, Adam,” Sam said, looking at him. But oddly enough, Adam wasn’t looking at her. He was looking beyond her.

Day was just beginning to dawn. Blackness had receded. A crimson sky allowed them to see the foam-tipped waves rising all around them.

What the hell was he looking at? Sam wondered.

And what in God’s name was she going to do? She was fairly certain that she actually did know where to find the ship.

Oh, God…

“Miss Carlyle, Jerry has been a real pain in the ass lately. If you don’t move quickly, I think I’ll shoot her next. Right in the kneecap. Not a lethal shot, but one that will cause her excruciating pain.

“I’ll get my suit,” Sam said flatly. She turned to get her equipment.

“Better get suited up yourself,” Hinnerman told Sukee.

“Yeah, all right.” Sukee followed Sam, smiling as she carefully slipped her gun into a pocket of her jacket. She kept her distance from Sam while she shed the jacket. “Don’t get any ideas, Sammy. I can see it in your eyes, you’d love to make a grab for my jacket—and my gun. Liam will shoot Jerry if you make one false move. Take my word on that.” She smiled and started toward Liam. He took the jacket, then Sukee walked to Sam to put on a dive suit. “You going to be okay up here?” she called to Liam.

“Yep,” Liam assured her. “I won’t mind killing anyone who moves.”

“You’ll just have to be fast to do it,” Adam said matter-of-factly.

“What?” Hinnerman demanded.

“Look, look out there! On the water!” Adam said.

Hinnerman spun around, firing blindly and automatically.

And as he did, Adam took his chance.

He leaped on Hinnerman and sent them both catapulting over the port railing and into the water.

Sam didn’t dare risk the time to glance overboard.

Sukee’s jacket had gone overboard with Liam, she was certain. And without her gun, Sukee was just an obnoxious little half-pint bitch.

Who’d been willing to kill them all.

Sam grabbed her by the shoulder. She’d never really taken a good solid punch at anyone’s face in all her life.

The ability to do so now came with amazing ease.

Her right knuckles connected with Sukee’s jaw. Sukee screeched, trying to sock Sam in return. She made an ineffectual lunge for Sam’s stomach, but Sam didn’t feel the blow at all. She clenched her fist again, and this time caught Sukee beneath her jaw. Sukee swore, ranted and tried to strike Sam again. She missed completely. Sam struck her once again.

Sukee screamed wildly, clutching her face, falling to the floor. “You’ve broken my nose, you bitch. You’ve broken my nose!”

Sam swung around. Half of the Sloop Bee’s passengers were staring at her.

The other half were staring over the port side of the boat. “Can you see them?” Sam demanded, ignoring Sukee, who was moaning on the deck.

“No!” Yancy cried to her.

“I’m going after them,” Jem said, diving into the water.

They heard shots coming from the water. Someone still had a gun.

It didn’t matter. Jem was already over the side.

Sam swore, zipping up the suit she was already half into. James Jay Astin was reading her mind, standing next to her, ready to help her into her vest and cylinder. Jerry was behind him with her mask and fins. She accepted both, looking at Jerry.

Her mother.

What a night.

Psychologically, of course, she would never get over it.

But she would get past it.

And she would help Jerry get past it with her. It was just that right now…

Right now she had to find Adam. She started to move. Sukee grabbed her ankle, trying to trip her.

“Could someone please take care of Sukee?” she asked politely.

“They just shot Joey,” Sue said. “You bet I’ll take care of her.”

Perhaps that wasn’t such a good idea, but Sam couldn’t waste any more time on Sukee. Besides, she realized, as she went over the side, Sue wasn’t a vicious killer. Sue wasn’t a killer at all. She was just in love with a man who came from a family with a shady past.

Joey’s father had killed hers.

Her mother had killed his father.

Sweet Jesus…

No more killing. No more deaths.

She went over the side.

Her dive gear gave her the same advantage Adam had used to sweep her away from the Emersons. She sank down a good fifteen feet, grateful that dawn was breaking, that she was also being given the advantage of the light that was just beginning to break through the water. She could see the kicking legs of all three men.

Jem was perhaps twenty feet from the other two.

Liam Hinnerman was still in possession of his gun and still shooting. But he was finding it almost impossible to get a good shot at Adam in the midst of the waves that were buffeting him.

Adam…

Adam was perhaps fifty feet from her. Diving, rising, diving, rising.

Trying to beat the waves and avoid Hinnerman’s shots at the same time.

She swam toward Adam.

Tugged on his feet. Jerked his ankles.

He came shooting downward in front of her. To her amazement, he was smiling. Her weights balanced them against the buoyancy of the water. They went pitching downward together for a long moment. She started to offer him her regulator so he could breathe, but he pulled her mouthpiece away for a moment instead, gripped her head and kissed her hard as they plummeted.

Interesting way to drown….

But they didn’t drown. Adam released her, sharing her air. He motioned, indicating Jem, and she knew he was telling her that they had to do something to help Jem.

When she realized what he wanted to do, she shook her head fervently.

He nodded.

She couldn’t stop him.

He was going to bait Hinnerman. Force the man to keep taking potshots at him.

Sam was to drag Hinnerman down until Adam could turn and struggle with the man.

“No!” she mouthed.

Adam was already gone.

Even in a shirt and jeans, he was still amazingly smooth and supple in the water, like a dolphin. He went streaking by Hinnerman, who fired.

Again…

How many bullets were in that damned gun? How many had he used?

Sam didn’t know, but she heard the peculiar sound of another bullet streaking through the water. She couldn’t bear it anymore.

Time to move.

She filled her vest with air and shot upward with a prayer, directly beneath Hinnerman. He was kicking madly against the waves, looking out at the water surrounding him. Looking for Adam to surface.

She caught his feet and dragged him downward with all her strength.

He catapulted down, startled by her attack. Then he tried to recover, doubling over, reaching for her.

He was stronger than she was, and in damned good shape. He worked out. He was powerful.

He reached for her regulator, ripping the mouthpiece from her. She lost her mask as his fingers wound around her throat.

He raised his left hand. Aiming the gun directly into her face.

He smiled as he prepared to fire.

His arm was suddenly jerked upward, and he fired. A bullet ripped toward the surface of the water, missing Sam by mere inches.

It had been intended for her face….

But Hinnerman couldn’t fire again. Adam’s fingers were around his throat, and the man was turning blue. His eyes were beginning to bulge, his tongue to protrude. He tried to gasp in air.

And received nothing but water.

Sam watched in horror, mechanically dragging her mask and regulator back into place. She gasped in air.

As Hinnerman tried to break free he slammed against a coral shelf that rose just above the Seafire Isle Steps.

Blood from a cut he opened on the coral spewed into the water, and the man went limp.

Sam caught Adam’s arm, and his eyes met hers. He was still furious, in a deadly rage. But he read in her eyes what she had realized earlier. It was time for the killing to stop.

She hadn’t spoken, but he nodded. He took a long draft of her air, then indicated that she should take her mouthpiece back and surface. She did, with him behind her, dragging Hinnerman’s wounded form.

Sam broke the surface first. Jem was holding on to the ladder on the back of the dive boat.

“Sam?” he demanded.

“Adam’s coming. Hinnerman’s hurt,” she said.

Jem nodded, dragging himself up the ladder to help Sam emerge first, then turning back for Adam. Sam sat at the back of the boat, doffing her flippers first, thanking James Jay Astin as he helped her out of her vest.

Adam reached the ladder. Liam Hinnerman must have really gashed himself, she thought, and the sky, crimson itself with the rising of the sun, was adding to the deep red tone of the water that surrounded Hinnerman.

“Come on, Hinnerman, we’re going to take you to a hospital so you can be nice and healthy when you stand trial for murder,” Adam muttered, setting Hinnerman’s arms on the ladder. “Hold on!” he said, grasping the ladder to drag himself up so he could turn with Jem to heft the man out of the water.

But even as Adam emerged, Jerry suddenly started to scream. Sam jerked her head up. Adam swung around.

Hinnerman let out a startled cry as he was jerked off the ladder.

“What the hell—” Adam began.

“Shark!” Jerry whispered, standing there, shaking.

Hinnerman disappeared beneath the surface as Adam positioned himself to dive in.

James Jay Astin made a dive for Adam instead.

“It’s the blood, O’Connor. You can’t help him now.”

They were all frozen, stunned.

Hinnerman’s head appeared above the surface one more time as he gurgled something unintelligible.

Then he disappeared under the waves that were growing fiercer with each passing second.

They heard a strange wailing. Sukee, starting to cry. Sam didn’t think she was crying for Hinnerman, just for the loss of what she thought should have been hers.

Adam moistened dry lips, slipped an arm around Sam and spoke to Jem. “We’ve got to get back before the storm hits, Jem.”

Jem nodded. “Yeah.”

Adam led Sam to a wooden seat, his arm around her. They passed Jerry, who was sitting with her wind-whipped blond head bowed.

Sam paused and knelt beside her.

“I’m not sorry to have a mother,” she said softly.

Jerry started to cry. Sam winced, but James Jay Astin smiled wryly at her and Adam, taking a fatherly position beside Jerry.

Sue had tied Sukee to the ice chest with her belt. Joey was lying on the floor, with Yancy packing towels against his wound.

“Yancy?” Adam said.

“He’s going to make it. If we all survive the storm, that is.”

Sam looked at Adam, who smiled, touched her chin and kissed her gently.

“We’ll survive the storm,” he assured her. “We will.”

They took a seat side by side, Sam leaning against his shoulder.

“There’s probably still a lot to explain,” Adam said softly to her. “But I meant what I said, Sam. I love you.”

She smiled. “I love you, too.”

“Want to marry me before you get mad and walk off again?”

She looked at him. Nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, marriage sounds kind of good right now.”

“I’m glad. I don’t think I could leave you now for a while.”

“I don’t think you’ll need to leave me,” she whispered.

He kissed her again. Her lips. Softly. Tenderly.

They made a good team, she thought. “You’re definitely one good dive buddy,” she told him.

He laughed.

The sound was carried away on the wind.

And Jem brought them speeding to the dock at Seafire Isle just before the heavens burst open.

Epilogue

D ead men tell no tales.

But those on the Beldona had done so, each man crying out his own story in poignant silence.

It was the second day Adam had dived to the wreck. Though Sam had led him there the first time, she had stayed outside the crusted hull of the ship.

While the storm raged around them the other night, she had told him what she was certain her father had known. Their group—plus Hank and minus Liam Hinnerman—had huddled in the main house while the storm winds whipped around them. Sukee had ranted and threatened, promising that she was going to bring Sam up on charges of assault and battery. Joey Emerson née Shapiro had told Sam that she should tell the authorities everything she saw fit, but Sue had cried and pleaded, promising that she would get her husband psychiatric help. Sam was still a soft touch. Joey Emerson was probably not going to pay for the way he had behaved. However, even Adam had to admit that he was extremely contrite.

It also seemed as if his wife meant to make him pay dearly anyway.

So, except for Sukee, their group seemed to be a comfortable enough one while they listened to the winds rage beyond the walls of the house. And while the winds tore around them and the lights went out and they sat huddled together in darkness, Sam told them what she thought her father must have discovered.

“A ghost story, I think—it’s absolutely all I can figure out. I was thinking about Adam and nearly drowning when it occurred to me.”

“Me and drowning—in the same light?”

She smiled. “Well, I especially wanted to live—because of you. And I was thinking about the things that people did for love—and for money. My dad had hinted about his theory, but I guess I really never listened. I think that Theresa-Maria Rodriguez was still very much in love with Captain Reynolds when he seized the Yolanda and took her and Don Carlos aboard the Beldona. Don Carlos had stolen the Eyes of Fire rubies for her, and she knew it. She wanted the rubies, and she wanted to be with Captain Reynolds. I think the two of them planned to sabotage the ship, murder everyone aboard and blow it up, then disappear together with the gems. There were dozens of places they could have gone in the New World and lived like a king and queen on the price they could have gotten for the rubies.”

“I don’t understand,” Judy Walker said. “What difference would it make who or what destroyed the ship? It would still be sunken, right?”

“Sunken, but in pieces,” Sam said. “Hunks of debris covered by the coral cliff where the Steps are, just before the drop-off. Beneath the Steps, I imagine that coral and barnacles and all sorts of sea life have grown over what remains of the hull and decking, making it almost impossible to see.”

“I had gone out, figuring she was in pieces,” Hank said. “I thought she had to be under the Steps, as well. That drop-off would have been a perfect place for a ship to sink and disappear.”

“Sam is right,” Jerry offered painfully. She looked at Sam. “You’re right—I’m certain.”

“But the rubies are supposedly still on the ship,” Jim Santino said. “Jerry, you saw them, right?”

She nodded. “In the eye sockets of a skeleton.”

“The rubies are still on the ship because Don Carlos Esperanza, and maybe even Captain Reynolds’ own shipmates, discovered what he was up to. They probably mutinied with their Spanish prisoners, but too late to save themselves from the explosives Reynolds had set to destroy the ship,” Sam said.

“So…” Judy Walker encouraged.

“So when he knew he was about to die, I imagine Don Carlos Esperanza took out his sword and pinned Captain Reynolds right through the heart with it. He probably stuffed the rubies right into the man’s eyes then and there—and Sukee’s dad must have put them back when he knew he was dying himself.”

Sam paused, looking at Adam.

“I think maybe Hank and I should go down alone first. You and Jerry could dive with us to find the ship, but I don’t think you should go in at first.” He hesitated a little painfully. “I don’t think either of you should find Justin Carlyle.”

Sam had agreed.

So when the storm had cleared and the police had come from the mainland, they had gone out for the first time. Adam and Hank had found their way through the holes in the coral shelf until they were under the overhang. But even once they were there, it was still almost impossible to find the wreckage of the ship. They had almost used up their air when they found what had been the captain’s cabin.

Adam and Hank had very carefully removed the remains of Justin Carlyle, then Chico Garcia. They decided not to move anything else at all until Sam had a chance to see the ship.

And now Sam was with him.

Seeing the ghosts of the past she had re-created in those strange moments when she had been afraid she was going to die herself.

Dead men…

Their skeletal remains lay about eerily, some held together by remnants of rusted armor, one with its head uncannily perched on a bookcase while the disjointed body sat on the desk beneath it.

Don Carlos Esperanza.

The sword that had brought about his death lay at his side. The sword that had once pierced him, through flesh and sinew and organ, a sword that had once been bathed in blood.

The sword with which he had slain Reynolds, then himself, with the sure knowledge of his impending death from the explosion he could not stop.

Now the sword lay on the handsomely carved desk where the pieces of the dead man remained, side by side with the small bones of what had been his hand.

It looked as if Don Carlos might, at any minute, pick up the sword and avenge himself upon his enemies.

Dead men did tell tales….

This one shouted silently of his own murder.

A tiny yellow tang darted in and out of the cavernous eye sockets of the long dead man.

Sea fans wafted over oak. Anemones rose against the rotted core of an inkwell.

Another skeleton lay by the side of the desk, shadowed in darkness. Though time and pressure had blown out the master’s cabin window of the Beldona, the ship was down deep enough that the sun’s rays offered little light inside.

This skeleton looked at them.

Stared at them like a demon, a devil, dead hand drifting, fingers seeming to point….

Stared at them with blazing red eyes that seemed to dazzle and blind.

Captain Reynolds.

Seeing now through the Eyes of Fire….

Captain Reynolds! A man who had received his just punishment for the murder of so many innocents. A finger lifted now, drifting in the remnant of a glove, seeming to point, just as he seemed to stare and scream….

Sam didn’t touch the jewels. Adam hadn’t thought she would. Sam had found the ship because of them, and Jerry probably could have done the same, yet neither woman wanted anything to do with the treasure.

Adam was glad, however, that Sam seemed intrigued by the wreck itself. They explored it, then slowly and carefully surfaced together, their information intact to hand over to James Jay Astin, who would arrange salvage with the state of Florida.

According to the salvage laws, Sam had earned her share of the treasure. She wanted it donated to a children’s hospital. Some good, she had told Adam, should come from the loss of her father.

Back on the Sloop Bee, Adam held her, ruffled her damp hair and told her, “It’s a rare woman who wouldn’t even touch those rubies!”

Sam shuddered. “They’re cursed.”

“Sam! You’re not superstitious.”

She said nothing, and he shrugged, holding her close.

“I have a jewel I’m hoping you will like. It’s nowhere near as grand as those rubies, but then, I’ve been working for myself lately, and I don’t pay well at all.” He drew a ring from the little pocket of his bathing trunks. “It’s an engagement ring, even though I’m hoping we can just fly away and get married.”

She offered him her finger. He slipped the ring on it. “Well?” he asked a little nervously.

“Now, this,” she said, “is the most beautiful jewel I’ve seen in all my life.”

He kissed her lips, then her forehead, her eyelids. She gazed at him, content. “Now those,” he said, staring intently at her and pointing, “are the wildest Eyes of Fire I’ve ever seen. When you’re mad, Sam…”

She tapped him on the chin. “You’ve got a temper yourself, you know.” She smiled. “But I love you. And I think as soon as we can take a trip to the mainland, we should get married. Quite frankly, I’m afraid to wait too long.”

He grinned, then sobered. “Sam, quite seriously, the ship cost you your father. But it gave us back to one another, and, well, there’s Jerry….”

“My mother.” She smiled. “How strange. I was stunned. I thought I might hate her, but I don’t. She never had the kind of love I had, and she didn’t know how to accept it from my father. She almost had it back again—then lost everything. You don’t think she’ll go to jail, do you?”

Adam shook his head. “To all intents and purposes, she killed in self-defense. She’ll be fine. Mr. James Jay Astin is determined to get her the very best lawyers there are. She’s been allowed to stay on the island. Things will work out.”

Sam nodded. “We can actually thank the Beldona for more.”

“What?”

“Well, Hank coming here. Creating Brian along with Yancy. Yancy is determined to marry him right away, too, you know. She says she was an idiot, that she lived in hell when she thought he was dead, and she wasn’t letting any fool prejudice—including her own fear—keep them apart anymore.”

“I’m glad. My brother really adores her.”

“We’ve also got Mr. James Jay Astin.”

“How so?”

“I think he’s in love with—with my mother.”

“Really?”

Sam nodded.

“And you’re happy?”

“Very happy.”

He rose, pulling her up beside him. Jem was bringing the Sloop Bee to the dock.

Sam pointed. “Our island,” she murmured. “I mean, you are…”

“Working for a private concern now,” he assured her. “And you, my love, are definitely my greatest private concern.”

Sam laughed and landed happily in his arms. He kissed her deeply.

They were home.

And if the Eyes of Fire had offered up a curse, it was over now.

For the Eyes had closed.

And love had set them free.